Shingles: Early Symptoms

The earliest symptoms of shingles are called the prodromal stage. This occurs prior to the appearance of the rash. This stage usually begins with stinging, burning, pain, or numbness in the area where the rash will appear. The sensations can appear days or even weeks before the rash. As with the rash, the location of pain is the chest, back, abdomen, face, one arm or leg. Just before the rash appears, flu like symptoms can develop including, headaches, stomachaches, nausea, diarrhea, and chills withour fever. These symptoms indicate that the virus has emerged from its "sleep" and is "on the move".

Shingles: Antiviral medications

Basically there are three anitvirals in use for shingles. It appears that the sooner treatment is begun, the better. The three medications are: acyclovir, valacyclovir, or famciclovir. Acyclovir minimizes the severity and duration of shingles symptoms by inhibiting viral replication. While acyclovir lessens the duration of lesions and promotes crusting, it is doubtful that it reduces PHN.

Valacyclovir is similar in effect to acyclovir, but seems to reduce PHN as well. This is also the case for famciclovir. Both antivirals aid crusting of lesions, and reduce PHN. The choice of antiviral treatment will hinge on absorption, and cost. Valacyclovir and famiclovir have better bioavailability. Famciclovir is the most expensive, while acyclovir generic is the least.

Shingles Pain: Neuropathic Pain

You know, I've been cruising through some materials that challenge my concept of the brain, and perception. I always thought that the senses picked up information from the outside world and transmitted it to the brain sort of like data over a modem. The brain then sent back a response, etc.

Well, some of the stuff I read recently makes me think that is all wrong. The important part is that the brain is much more active in the process than I thought. In fact, the brain kind of guesses, or constructs reality from incomplete and faulty input sent by the senses.

Have you ever heard of a Doctor Ramachandran? This guy is doing all kinds of experiments with simple devices and techniques that make one wonder about sensations.

Here is one easy one. Take a plastic dummy hand and place it on the table. Put your hand next to it in the same position. Now hide your hand from sight. The experimenter now begins to stroke, and tap you hand and at the same time do the exact types of touching to the fake hand. Remember, you cannot see your own hand.

What happens is that in a matter of minutes, as you watch the experimenter touch the fake hand, your mind switches over and you get the very real sensation that the fake hand is your hand. Your brain constructs a reality from faulty data, and fools itself into thinking that the dummy hand is yours.

This process may be useful for post herpetic neuralgia (PHN), or the pain experienced after shingles rash has gone away. The nerve endings in PHN are only a small part of the pain experience. It may be that the pain is coming from the brain. More on this later.

Shingles Pain

Have you ever had shingles? Shingles pain can drive you crazy. The case I had was fairly mild. I looked at some of the pictures of people with shingles on the INTERNET, and "Wow!". I had it easy.

Shingles pain starts kind of like a tingling or burning sensation. At first it is vague. It sort of creeps up on you. Did you get a little sick first? Maybe a slight fever, and just unwell feeling? You know shingles is the same bug that causes chicken pox. After you get chicken pox as a kid and it goes away, the varicella zoster virus goes into hiding. It goes dormant. It seems to sleep in certain nerve cells along your spine.

Later, at a time when you least want it to, the virus wakes up. It travels along the nerve axons out to the surface of the skin and attacks. This usually happens to older people, and to people who have poor functioning immune systems. Like when you have cancer treatments, an organ transplant, HIV, or you are just worn out tired. Stress can also bring it on.

Anyway, back to the shingles pain. It is like fire. It burns, shoots electric bolts of fire through you, and for some people it itches like mad.

You know what I read somewhere? Those rash blisters, and red spots can be relieved by Preparation H. Yeah. Preparation H, the hemorrhoid ointment. Just dab it on each red spot. Works for kids with chicken pox too. Helps the kids stop scratching, and get to sleep. It's cheap. Worth a try.

The itching can ruin your life. I read an article about people who itched so bad they tore into their flesh. No medications worked for them. They couldn't sleep and scratched all day too. That happened in the healed over phase. The rash had disappeared, but the sensations and nerve irritation remained. This one woman had to wear a helmet to prevent her from scratching her forehead where the shingles rash had been. Every evening before bed, she put on her helmet, and mittens too. She did so much damage to her scalp that she needed a skin graft. Then she scratched the skin graft off. Yikes!

Shingles can show up on your back, side of your body, neck, legs, arms, and even on your forehead. It can infect your eyes, and damage your sight. It usually forms band looking areas, or stripes. That is because it is following nerve patterns from central spinal nerves out to the skin.

There are some various treatments now, and even prevention. The little virus is pretty tough, so most of the treatments just treat the symptoms like the pain, and itching. Some of the drugs that are used to treat other types of viruses, like HIV may help though. Shingles pain can be much more serious than you might think.